Feeding The Corn
by Pey119
Summary: Percy takes Nico to the corn maze on a late Fall night. The corn rustles, it calls. Even corn has to be fed. (human au, complete)
1. Chapter 1

It was just a fall day, a Friday night. They went to that corn maze for fun, for a couple scares. They didn't go for what they got.

It was a dark night, the sun having disappeared below the horizon hours before. The moon nor the stars were in sight, creating an aura of darkness and fear. Far off, the lights of a city miles away made the horizon glow in shades of red and orange.

It drizzled rain here and there, the wind stabbed at their bones.

"This is so cool!" little Nico tugged at Percy's blue sleeve. "What maze are we going to do?! Can we do the long one?! Have you ever done this before?!"

Percy looked to his mother in exasperation, it having been her idea to take their young neighbor. Yes, Percy had grown up with Nico, but he was a couple years older. Nico... Nico was Nico. The young one, Bianca's little brother. He was too happy and geeky for his own good.

Bianca's little brother... Percy should have brought her along. She was the only one that could keep him in line.

"Yeah, I've been to one. Just not this one." Percy watched as his mother paid the fee. "This one's really old. People don't usually go to it anymore."

"Then why are we?" Nico questioned.

"It's scarier." Percy let the woman stamp his hand before walking with his mom behind the building; campfires dotted about before the entrance to the mazes. "See that forest all the way back there?"

Nico nodded. "What's in it?"

"Monsters. Don't wonder or they'll get you." Percy looked to his mom. "Should I take him in now?"

"Yes, and be nice." Sally ruffled Nico's hair. "Go have fun. Later we can watch some scary movies or something. Maybe some hot chocolate."

Another gust of wind chilled them to the bone and sent the thoughts of hot chocolate reaching their hearts.

"Okay!"

"Come on, Nico." Percy took the younger boy's hand. "Let's get going. We only have to babysit you for tonight."

"I'm old enough to watch myself." he insisted.

"Your dad doesn't think so." Percy stopped at the entrances to the mazes. "Which one? You can pick."

The corn shook with each gust of wind.

They rustled, they beckoned them in.

Nico pointed to the farthest entrance, an entrance Percy nor anyone else had noticed. "Let's do that one."

Percy sighed. "That's probably the longest."

Nico grinned. "I know."

"Fine, fine." Percy headed toward the entrance. "Don't let go of my hand, even if you get scared."

"I'm not going to get scared." Nico's grip tightened. "It's just corn."

"And monsters."

They stepped into the maze. As that first foot hit the dirt, Percy could feel his heart stop in his chest. He looked around, had an overwhelming fear that something wasn't right.

"Come on!" Nico charged forward, his hand leaving Percy's. "This way!"

"Nico!" Percy ran after his young friend. "Come back here!"

The corn seemed to hiss at him as he ran, tried to trip him with each stalk it could. The mud was uneven, the corn was unkempt. In seconds, it felt as if they were miles away from anyone else.

"Nico?!" Percy stopped short as he realized he couldn't even hear the footsteps of the other boy. "Nico, where are you?!"

The wind laughed, the stalks danced. Nothing seemed right.

"NICO!" Percy continued to look for the boy, continued to shout his name.

Minutes went by.

Eventually, he ended up at the start of that maze, where his mother was waiting anxiously.

"Where were you?" she ran to him, didn't noticed the absence of the rambunctious boy. "You've been gone for hours. I told you thirty minutes, Percy. Only thirty minutes."

Hours. It didn't add up in a mind that was already swirling.

"Where's Nico?" she looked behind him as if Nico had been hiding in the corn. "Where'd he go?"

Percy shrugged helplessly. "I...I looked...he ran off... All I've been doing is looking."

It was just a fall day, a Friday night. They went to that corn maze for fun, for a couple scares. They didn't go for what they got.

A missing boy, police searches. They didn't go to lose a boy to the corn.

But even the corn fed on something.


	2. Chapter 2

Nico was around nine years old. He hadn't been anywhere by himself, had always had a babysitter if his dad was gone. He wasn't used to fear, wasn't used to being alone.

The corn kept getting taller. He was half its size, with pants that were too big and a hoodie that had been his father's. It was soft, warm. But it still didn't keep the chill out of his bones whenever the wind decided to blow.

What did the tornado bell sound like again? He expected it at any moment, the wind having been stronger than he had ever felt it. Where would he go if there was a tornado? He couldn't see anything over the corn, couldn't see the moon, couldn't see the stars.

It was dark.

"Percy!" he stood still at a fork in the path, tried to decide which way to go. Which way would Percy have went? "Percy! Where are you?!"

His older neighbor didn't answer, nor did Nico expect him to. The corn was too loud.

His bladder ached and stabbed at his side, his pants kept falling. The wind stung at his tear filled eyes and sore throat, sucked any moisture he had left out of him.

Nico clung to one stalk of corn when the wind got worse, when it got so strong it almost blew his small body away. It was then that the corn changed, that it bent down and surrounded him. When the wind was gone and he stopped shaking, he looked around to see that everything was the same.

But something had changed.

"Percy?" his voice was nothing more than a squeak. The stalk of corn he clung to was surprisingly sticky. "Percy, I'm scared."

He pulled his arms away, saw the blood coating where the corn had been. "Ow..." He looked around, heard no more wind nor anything but the corn.

Though the wind was gone, the corn still shook and rustled.

It still made its noises.

For when the corn was fed, it pulsed and celebrated over the joy.

The years of starvation were over.

The drought had finally ended.

The blood would once again water their roots.


	3. Chapter 3

The years passed, the sun never rose. Nico got used to the darkness, got used to spying the corn through it.

He learned his way through the maze. He never reached an exit, never reached the entrance, but he always knew where he was. Nico learned to spread his blood on them when it came out, learned to accept the corn that was thrown in his path. The corn needed to eat, it was true. But so did he.

As the years passed the fear died down. He got used to his surroundings, got used to being alone. But was he really alone? The corn had called him there, the corn was still there. The corn would never abandon him.

It'd never let him run away like Percy did.

The corn kept growing, the blood kept pouring. He never smelled anything else besides the plants and the red water that now hydrated them. He never smelled fresh rain, never smelled a home-cooked meal. He couldn't remember what Bianca smelled like. Had she had a distinctive smell? Did everyone? Did he? All he smelled now was blood.

As he grew, he left behind the innocence of childhood. He left behind love and fear. Now he only cared to survive, cared to figure out where the end of that maze was. The corn never stopped calling for him.

It was loud, so loud it stilled filled his dreams every night. When he awoke, he wasn't where he laid down. Blood stained the ground where he lay.

Blood...it never stopped pouring out of him.

Blood...it never stopped feeding the corn.

Blood...it started to smell good.


	4. Chapter 4

The cornfield the maze had been held in became abandoned as even more people left the country lands. Percy always saw it in his dreams, however. He remembered how each stalk of corn looked. He remembered not being able to see the moon on a cloudless night.

Percy was eighteen when he got his first car. That first Saturday, he drove that seem route his mother had years before. He drove in hopes to see any signs the police had missed. When he got there, the last thing he expected for the uncared for field was the large corn stalks to be as tall as ever.

It didn't make sense. He looked it up to be sure, called his mother who confirmed it. That field had been abandoned after Nico had been the fifth kid to go missing. The corn wasn't harvested, nothing was cared for, nobody went around the land. If teenagers ever did, they never came back.

Percy stopped his car on the dirt road. His radio was off, allowing him to hear the silence as raw as ever. There was no wind but the corn still swayed from another form of a breeze.

He stepped out of his car and let the door swing shut behind him, his eyes on the stalks as they danced about. The corn was too happy for his liking.

"Nico?!" Percy took a step forward, clenching his keys to his chest. "Nico, can you hear me?!"

There were no sounds but the corn itself. It heard him, it beckoned him. He took another step closer.

"Neeks, come on!" his voice broke. "Answer me! Please answer me!" Percy's legs shook beneath him. "You've got to be out here...you've got to be..."

The sun was darker than usual. The birds didn't seem to come near the area. Out in the fields, miles away, a vulture flung out of the corn and circled overhead. Circled...

"Nico!" Percy eyed where the bird was before running into the corn. He made his own paths as he went, continued on straight as the wind picked up.

The corn screamed as its sacrifice was found.


	5. Chapter 5

The corn had eyes just as the hills did.

They watched Percy run and trip, stumble and fall, continue on. They screamed and screeched when their sacrifice was discovered.

Percy fell to his knees beside Nico's limp body, fell to his knees as he saw the blood that covered the now teenage boy.

His clothes were many sizes too small, his skin was tinted red. Dry skin cracked around his mouth and eyes, giving his face a look that it would just crumble off.

He didn't move.

"Nico!" Percy shook the boy in hopes to wake him. There were no cuts but the blood kept pouring out. "Nico! Wake up!"

The corn leaned towards them, danced and fluttered about. There was no wind.

Percy picked the small boy up in his arms. He could feel every bone.

He ran back the way he came. The corn was too loud to hear his keys jingle with each step. He couldn't hear his phone ring and ring.

The corn needed another sacrifice as it watched its own leave.

Their sacrifice had been dried up, had been ready to sink into the earth forever. They needed something else.

The corn stood in silence when Percy erupted from their clutches, when he got in his car and drove off as fast as he could. They didn't make a sound as they watched their latest victim leave.

The corn prepared for another drought.


	6. Chapter 6

The nightmares plagued Percy from then on out. He could hear the corn, could hear every word they screamed. He saw them dance in the dark moonlight, saw the way their stalks erupted from the earth in all their blood-red glory. He smelled what that field was made up of.

They beckoned him each night, set their sights on him. In the mornings, he woke up with blood staining his fingernails. When he saw Nico, he wanted to take that boy back to where he had found him.

Nico... The nightmares were worse for him. Nobody believed his words, no investigations were done. In the eyes of the police, that field was nothing more than the remains of a myth. Nothing could be done about Nico's "madness".

Locked away, sealed behind concrete walls. The corn still found him as he slept, they still stained his hands as he clawed at those padded walls. They screamed his name in hopes that one day he'd return.

The corn never stopped screaming during the droughts. Stay away, legends started to warn. Myths ran down generations. Stay away from the cornfields at night, stay away from the cornfields at day. Stay away from the corn in hopes that it would never learn your name.


End file.
